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President Barack Obama is like a guy who sneaks onto a marathon race course a mile or so from the finish line and pretends he ran the whole thing.

In his speech Tuesday night commemorating the return to the United States of the last American combat brigade in Iraq, Mr. Obama patted himself lustily on the back for not screwing up a self-imposed timetable for withdrawal of U.S. forces that was made possible by the policies of President George W. Bush.

"Tonight I am announcing that the American combat mission in Iraq has ended," Mr. Obama said. "That was my pledge to the American people as a candidate for this office."

"Last February, I announced a plan that would bring our combat brigades out of Iraq, while redoubling our efforts to strengthen Iraq's security forces and support its government and people," the president said.

"That's what we've done. We've removed nearly 100,000 U.S. troops from Iraq. We've closed or transferred to the Iraqis hundreds of bases. And we've moved millions of pieces of equipment out of Iraq."

Mr. Obama said little about the troop surge in Iraq that made possible the victory he was claiming as his own. This is understandable, because the president is not eager to remind Americans that he, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and most other Democrats in Congress had vociferously opposed it.

Mr. Obama can be excused for not reminding Americans of an error in judgment he'd made. But not for his callous treatment of former President Bush. All he could say about his predecessor was that "no one could doubt President Bush's support for our troops, or his love of country or commitment to our security."

This faux graciousness illustrates Mr. Obama's lack of grace.

The president's speech was flat. He seemed bored with the topic.

"One could not help to see in the president's words and mannerisms a man who was distracted, whose heart wasn't in it," wrote Tom Mahnken, a veteran of the Iraq war, in Foreign Policy.

So why give the speech at all? The milestone it marks is not particularly significant. American troops have rarely been involved in combat in Iraq for nearly two years and 50,000 U.S. troops remain there.

Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst for the Democrat-leaning Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post he was confused about the speech, which, he said, could raise unrealistic expectations among the public about the chances for calm in Iraq.

"Maybe he's entitled to the partial victory lap, but this isn't the right moment for it," Mr. O'Hanlon said. "If I were him, I'd wait until we had an Iraqi government, and do it with the Iraqis together."

Mr. O'Hanlon's words remind us Mr. Obama is botching the one major responsibility in Iraq he's had since President Bush handed him a military victory there.

Iraq has been essentially without a government since March, after an agonizingly close election between blocs headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. The deadlock has provided openings to both Sunni and Shiite extremists, funded by al-Qaida and Iran. If it persists, our costly victory in Iraq could be undermined.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the departing U.S. commander in Iraq, told The New York Times Aug. 29 a solution to the deadlock may be two months away.

"If we get the government formed, I think we're OK," Gen. Odierno said. "If we don't, I don't know."

Mr. Obama is known to much prefer diplomacy to military force. But in Iraq, his administration's diplomacy has been inept.

In an address ostensibly devoted to Iraq, Mr. Obama talked four times as much about the economy as about America's future relations with Iraq and why this is important to U.S. security. This suggests the speech's odd timing is due chiefly to domestic political considerations.

"He shouldn't have attempted to weave in an economic message," said Iraq War veteran Pete Hegseth. "The words seemed petty and out of place."

The president implied our current economic troubles are due largely to spending on the Iraq war. This is untrue. According to the Congressional Budget Office, his failed stimulus alone cost $100 billion more than the entire cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This was Mr. Obama's second address from the Oval Office, a grand stage. He left it diminished.

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